reams
about it. But I consider it one of the finest attractions of the place.

"The yarn's very simple. About 1840, a schooner, sailing under the
Portuguese flag, sailed from Rio de Janeiro. Her name was the _Arganil_,
she had a mixed cargo, and she was bound for New Orleans. These are
facts, Killdare. You can ascertain them any time from the marine
records. But we can't go much further.

"Among the crew were two brothers, Jason by name. Legend says that they
were Englishmen, but what Englishmen were doing on a Portuguese ship I
can't tell you. The name, however, might easily be South-European--it
appears, you remember, in Greek mythology. Now this point also has some
indications of truth. There was certainly one Jason, at least, shipped
as boatswain--the position of the other is considerably in doubt.

"Now we've got to get down to a matter of legend, yet with some
substance of truth. The story goes that there was a treasure chest on
the ship, the property of some immensely rich Brasilian, and that it
contained certain treasures that had been the property of a Portuguese
prince at the time that the court of Portugal was located in Rio de
Janeiro. This was from 1808 to 1821--breaking up in a revolution just a
hundred years ago. This is history, as you know. Just what was the
nature of the treasure no one seems to have any idea. It was a rather
small chest, so they say, bound with iron, and not particularly
heavy--but it was guarded with armed men, day and night. Of course the
prevailing belief is that it contained simply gold--the same, yellow,
deadly stuff that built the Armada and made early American history.
It might have been in the form of cups and vessels, beautiful things
that had been stolen from early heathen temples--again it might have
been jewels. No estimation of its value was ever made, as far as I
know--except that, like all unfound-treasures, it was 'incalculable.'

"You can believe as much of this as you like. Gold, however, is heavy
stuff--no one can carry much over twenty thousand dollars worth. If the
chest wasn't really very heavy, and really was of such incalculable
value, it had to contain something more than gold.

"This part of the story is pretty convincing. I've investigated, and the
legends contain such a wealth of detail concerning the appearance of the
chest, how it was guarded, and so on, and the various accounts dovetail
so perfectly one with another, that I am personally convinced th